Interactive+Workspaces+Project

The term //interactive workspace// is based on the concept of technologically enhanced project rooms used for problem solving and collaborative decision making (Johanson et al. 2004). They are designed to fulfill the needs of both co-located and distributed teams in an environment of electronic information management, the tighter integration envisioned within //interactive workspaces// implies “a closer connection between the physical and the virtual, the social and the technical, and the local and the remote” (Larsson et al, 2005). These interactive workspaces are rooms outfitted with technology intended to facilitate collaboration, information sharing, communication, and interaction with electronic information more effectively (Rankin et al. 2006), for improved communication in problem solving and design decision making. These physical environments, augmented with technologies to support design and decision making, can play a transformational role in improving multidisciplinary design tasks, such as the tasks required to design a complex building or infrastructure project.



The purpose of the interactive workspace project is to identify the traits of the workspace, and the modalities of the visualization and interaction, which are most beneficial based on the team and task being undertaken. For example, in a task more oriented toward designing an aspect of a building, being able to interact by sketching may be more important to the teams communication than providing a large display. The goal is to allow teams to determine the most valuable traits of a space for the regular tasks they undertake to use the most efficient means for creating, communicating, and capturing important project information.

Johanson, B., and Fox, A. (2004). “Extending tuplespaces for coordination in interactive workspaces,” //Journal of Systems and Software//, 69(3): 243-266. Larsson, A., Törlind, P., Bergström, M., Löfstrand, M., and Karlsson, L. (2005). Design for versatility: the changing face of workspaces for collaborative design, //Proceedings from the International Conference on Engineering Design//, Melbourne, Australia, August 15-18, 2005. Rankin, J., Issa, M., and Christian, J. (2006). “Exploring the principles of interactive collaborative workspaces”, //Proceedings of the 1st International Construction Specialty Conference, (ICSC-1)//, Calgary, Alberta, May 23- 26, 2006.